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What would have been the 15th season for girls’ swimming for Holyoke High School is not going to happen. While taking 2011-12 off, reconsideration will be given for the 2012-13 season.

HHS sported its own team for a number of years, and has co-oped with the Sterling High School team for the past several years.

Through all of it, coach Adria Colver has remained loyal to the Holyoke girls who were participating in the program and coached the girls locally even when they competed with Sterling.

The decision to take a year off came after thorough consideration of all options.

Driving the discussion was the fact Sterling dropped its swim program. Several schools in the league did the same, including Estes Park who has always been a top contender for the 4A championship.

To compensate, Colorado High School Activities Association (CHSAA) has made it possible for any serious swimmer to compete at the high school level through the invitational meets.

These are usually hosted by individual schools/teams and are separate from the school duals. Each invite involves a separate cost of around $130 per team, and presently this northern area has only three of those invites available.

While this provides nice opportunities, it’s at a high cost for the individual or small team, noted Colver. It allows a serious swimmer to qualify for the high school state level. However, three meets is hardly a full season, said Colver.

The other option is to co-op. Colver acknowledged the co-op with Sterling High School was ideal because they hosted dual meets in Sterling, reducing travel time. Without SHS, the next choice would be to co-op with Valley High School, which is south of Greeley.

Both had much success last year despite their need to travel extensively for practice due to the Holyoke swimming pool’s closure for repair.

Colver said both girls are deep into great school years and after discussion with them, it was decided to take the year off and watch to see the new changes in Colorado high school swimming.

Katlin Davis from Haxtun High School also swam with the Holyoke girls last year and is now participating in a non-school effort to swim with Valley High School. Coach Colver said any local girl interested in this should contact her (Colver) for more information.

After taking this year off, Colver said they will again re-evaluate the situation since a larger group of Holyoke summer club swimmers will be reaching high school and could be very interested in continuing in high school swimming competition.